LAB RDI Journal

Bridging the AI Skills Gap in Healthcare and ICT Education: A Curricular Gap Analysis Across European VET and HEI Institutions

The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare is advancing at a rapid pace, yet educational curricula have not kept up. As part of the Erasmus+-funded DETECT 2.0 project, a survey was conducted across four European vocational education and training and higher education institutions to analyse the current state of artificial intelligence (AI), innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability competencies taught to healthcare and information and communication technology students. In line with the project’s objective to improve the quality of life of people with early-stage dementia through technology, the survey examined whether curricula included content on AI-based assistive technologies for dementia care. Over 82% of programmes lacked meaningful AI integration, 71% had no dementia-specific content, and 65% of educators expressed low confidence in their graduates’ preparedness to use AI-driven tools effectively and responsibly. These descriptive results underscore the urgent need for interdisciplinary curricula that bridge healthcare domain knowledge and technical AI competencies and provide the evidence base for DETECT 2.0’s training interventions.